[a]How deserted(A) lies the city,
    once so full of people!(B)
How like a widow(C) is she,
    who once was great(D) among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
    has now become a slave.(E)

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Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 1:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?(A)
    Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering(B)
    that was inflicted on me,
that the Lord brought on me
    in the day of his fierce anger?(C)

13 “From on high he sent fire,
    sent it down into my bones.(D)
He spread a net(E) for my feet
    and turned me back.
He made me desolate,(F)
    faint(G) all the day long.

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16 “This is why I weep
    and my eyes overflow with tears.(A)
No one is near to comfort(B) me,
    no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
    because the enemy has prevailed.”(C)

17 Zion stretches out her hands,(D)
    but there is no one to comfort her.
The Lord has decreed for Jacob
    that his neighbors become his foes;(E)
Jerusalem has become
    an unclean(F) thing(G) among them.

18 “The Lord is righteous,(H)
    yet I rebelled(I) against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
    look on my suffering.(J)
My young men and young women
    have gone into exile.(K)

19 “I called to my allies(L)
    but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
    perished(M) in the city
while they searched for food
    to keep themselves alive.

20 “See, Lord, how distressed(N) I am!
    I am in torment(O) within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,(P)
    for I have been most rebellious.(Q)
Outside, the sword bereaves;
    inside, there is only death.(R)

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